BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT

Wayne Hazzard is the executive director of Dancers’ Group, a service organization and presenter in the Bay Area that seeks to serve artists, the dance community, and audiences via collaborative programs and services. Here, Wayne shares how Dancers’ Group works to elevate artists of color through projects like House/Full of Black Women, as well as how he’s watched relationships in virtual spaces deepen and simultaneously how small socially distanced groups of people coming together still hold power and resonance.

This interview is part of a series looking at how dance organizations have responded to the tumultuous events of 2020.

From House/Full of Black Women, Photo by Robbie Sweeny

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What was Dancers’ Group’s initial response to the pandemic back in March and April?

My first reaction was disbelief and hopefulness that we would navigate this quickly. I hoped that in a few months we would be back to some sense of being together, especially with regards to public performances. Many on our board thought it would be around for a while. The immediate impact was that our monthly Rotunda Dance Series at San Francisco City Hall was cancelled. We had been gearing up for our 22nd year of Bay Area Dance Week, which was scheduled for the end of April and beginning of May. We were wondering if it could still happen. We kept thinking, “Oh, we’re in this longer,” or “Oh, more needs to be virtual.” We had also just put out our March issue of our publication In Dance. We did a hybrid online version in April, and then didn’t do anything until summer for the next version. In Dance has since gone virtual.

We re-set our CA$H grant deadline so that applicants could take more time to think about their projects. We also took the review process internally, meaning our staff reviewed the funding applications, because we felt we could hold the complexity of the time more than convening a panel. We understood someone might say, “I’m going to do a performance in October 2020,” and when we were reviewing the applications in May 2020, there was so much unknown. Some thought it would be many years before we could gather again, some thought public performances would be possible later in the year. We felt like we could hold that and not penalize in review what someone said they were going to do. We took into consideration that we’re all making decisions in the moment; a performance might instead be held virtually or postponed, and that was okay.

Was Dancers’ Group affected financially?

One of the things with Dancers’ Group’s model is we have a small ratio of earned income to contributed income. Over the years, we’ve shifted to free public programming, both in our Rotunda Dance Series, in commissioning ONSITE artists, and in Bay Area Dance Week. That’s not to say we don’t believe in paid public performances, but we want to offer another way people can access a variety of dance artists in different settings and take away the barrier of payment. Over the years, we’ve found it very effective in generating new audiences and putting dance in new places.

How did Dancers’ Group shift (or did it shift) in response to the George Floyd protests this past summer?

Dancers’ Group received a grant through the Kenneth Rainin Foundation to work with Amara Tabor-Smith and Ellen Sebastian Chang on the 14th episode of House/Full of Black Women, a five year site specific ritual performance project that addresses issues of displacement, well-being, and sex trafficking of Black women and girls in Oakland through a series of episodes. We have been in multi-year conversations with Amara and Ellen about the visibility of Black women, the stresses of racism, and the challenges particular to Black women in having to take on the mantel of so many things in society and then being discounted in terms of their work. We also have a Black woman on staff. As a white-led organization, even as a gay man, there are areas that, for people of color and specifically Black people, I have no relationship to, though I certainly have empathy and can advocate for.

This idea of white supremacy and racist policing in our country were part of conversations we were already having and wanted to continue to bring forward. We were simultaneously in conversations with Joanna Haigood of Zaccho Dance Theatre. We’re commissioning a work from her that will hopefully go up in some way in 2022, again about larger questions about our racist culture. That will take place at San Francisco City Hall.

We looked to those artists and our friends and colleagues to help us put out information about how people might think about Black Lives Matter and the protests. On Dancers’ Group’s homepage, there’s a statement by Joanna Haigood that she allowed us to post. I didn’t want Dancers’ Group to say something without a partner or advocate who is Black and who has that lived experience.

What are some ways Dancers’ Group is currently responding to the needs of the dance community?

In terms of online platforms and information sharing, we were already working with the Bay Area dance community to get out information about activities, discounted tickets, workshops, and different writings. When the pandemic started, we had those systems in place. There was tension between the people who said, “Take this time to rest and breathe” and the people who said, “Make the best of this time.” I’m not saying one was better than the other, but there was a sense that some people felt able to do things and others didn’t. We heard both, but still provided information about what people were doing. It allowed us to hear the multiplicity of ideas going around and to get out information about different relief funds happening both national and locally. We also provided ways people could think about staying safe, including information the CDC was putting out. Having this online platform helped with the constant immediacy of how things were shifting weekly and sometimes daily.

I have been challenged personally in terms of work being in relation to another body; it was a real challenge to think about if I’m really working and not just “working from home but really taking the day off.” Now, over these eight plus months, I’m seeing a real shift from the zombie Zoom to people treating Zoom as a space in which they’re in relationship to other bodies. I think that’s only going to continue to deepen. Our values of virtual space as workspace are changing.

Looking toward the future, how far out does Dancers’ Group feel able to plan? And are events all virtual, or have any in-person events been planned?

With episode 14 of House/Full of Black Women – New Chitlin Circuitry: Reparations Vaudeville, we had been working toward a fall 2020 presentation in Oakland in a variety of spaces outside. We continued to be in conversation with the artists and spaces in Oakland about where we might do the performances, and it shifted a few times. We did public events in October in the Black Cultural Zone in East Oakland at Liberation Park and at the Betti Ono Gallery. These were small socially distanced events with at most 40 people. It was really about the practice of safety and at any point we knew it might not happen.

We still won’t know the resonance of those events for a while, though in talking with the artists we understood how important it was and what it meant to that group of people to come together safely. The emotions I have around it are coming from this time of grief, unknown, and fear based on a rhetoric that isn’t concerned about people and their health. It’s concerned about commodification of people and that money is more important than people’s lives. What I value about working with artists is the humanity and the attempt to be in relationship to people. It sounds amorphous and abstract, but it’s so powerful to be in relationship. Especially with regards to the work we’re commissioning, people can create their own physical relationship to the work. That has such power.

How do you think 2020 is going to impact Dancers’ Group in the long term?

We just had a Dancers’ Group board meeting. Our board is purposefully represented by educators and working artists. They understand the numerous complications and challenges it takes to work in this field. They’re also Google engineers, lawyers, and professors for whom dance is a central part of their life. In our virtual board meetings, we have become closer because of this time. We’re realizing how much we can let down some guard about a kind of interaction because we don’t know what the future is and, in some sense, that’s the artist’s life. It’s about the moment. It’s about being present and knowing that even though I’ve done this phrase or performance before, in this moment it’s going to be new. What I’m seeing happen online and particularly with our board is a renewed belief in the work we are doing and how we’re figuring it out.

How do you think 2020 is going to impact the dance field in the long term?

In the sense of virtual spaces, everybody agrees that yes we want to be back together safely when we can, and yet one of the things about teaching and audience engagement is that now you don’t have a two-hour commute and you can take classes in cities you don’t live in. Those are opportunities we didn’t have before. The potential for a different kind of engagement will be with us for a while. I hope the hybridity will evolve; we will have in-person events and also be able to watch and participate online. It will shift ideas of what is a performance and what is an audience. Before, we always assumed certain things about public events, and those will come into question more. Dancers’ Group hopes to play a part in encouraging new definitions of how we work together and support creativity that isn’t only over a 12-month cycle or seen through the larger institutions of seasons or presenting work at 8 p.m. I hope ways that were rigid in the past will expand.

Wayne Hazzard, Photo by Peter Prado

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To learn more, visit dancersgroup.org.

The post The Power of Relationship appeared first on Stance on Dance.

BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT

Jacquelyn Pritz is the operations manager and Crystal Faison-Mitchell is on the board of directors at DanceATL, a dance service organization that provides resources, promotion, and collaborative opportunities for the dance community in metro Atlanta and surrounding areas. Here, they share how DanceATL has created points of connection for their dance community, how DanceATL is rolling out a new membership structure, and how technology has been a source of access but not necessarily of equity.

This interview is part of a series looking at how dance organizations have responded to the tumultuous events of 2020.

Crystal Faison-Mitchell

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What was DanceATL’s initial response to the pandemic back in March and April?

Jacquelyn: As soon as things started to get serious, we immediately created a COVID-19 resource page on our website that was continuously updated throughout the summer. We had some programming planned for March that was put on pause indefinitely. Meetings with our volunteers immediately went digital. We were trying to keep up with all the performances and events that were either going virtual, cancelled, or postponed. We just tried to keep everyone up to date.

Crystal: We also offered two listening sessions to connect with people in the dance community just to give them a moment to express themselves and how the pandemic was impacting them as artists and dancers. At that point, all the technical aspects of the Economic Injury Disaster Loans and Payroll Protection Program were still new. People did not know if their studios or jobs were going away. We just wanted to listen to them about those fears, and also check in about the sense of isolation people started to feel very quickly by April and May. That was a reflective way people could be in community and talk to one another about the things they were going through.

How did DanceATL shift (or did it shift) in response to the George Floyd protests this past summer?

Jacquelyn: We immediately created a solidarity statement that was written collaboratively between me, all our board of directors, and our volunteers. DanceATL’s publication, which is called Promenade and is a digital newsletter where we interview artists in the community, was planned on being released that Monday, but we decided to postpone that and instead focus on what was happening. We later updated the statement on our website with resources.

Crystal: Those resources still live on DanceATL’s website. Each board meeting and each time we get together as a community, we take a moment at the top of our meetings to bring back into our awareness the commitment we made in our solidarity statement. We don’t want it to be just words; we want it to be a living statement. As a service organization, we’ve made a commitment to build bridges within the dance community and to be a resource for dancers who are from marginalized populations. There’s a lot of work to be done. Obviously, we are not perfect. We have to keep digging and reaching out to all populations and especially to those who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color. We are committed to continuously reminding ourselves of the work that needs to be done.

What are some ways DanceATL is currently responding to the needs of the dance community?

Jacquelyn: DanceATL is currently gearing up to release a membership structure. Up to this point, everything has been free offerings in terms of our services and programming.

DanceATL recently hosted a stage management Tech Talk. Our Tech Talks are kind of like TED Talks, except they are about production and how it relates to dance. Pre-COVID, these were in-person, and this recent one was on Zoom.

We also created an artist matchmaking program called A.M. Collaborative. A lot of people were feeling uninspired to make new work or perhaps moved to Atlanta during the pandemic. For those looking to connect, artists signed up, we learned about their interests, whether they were looking for a collaborative partner or just someone to be accountable to, and then matched 24 artists together. We all meet once a month on Zoom. That started in October and will continue until February.

Crystal: One of the interesting things about A.M. Collaborative is it’s interdisciplinary; its intent is to bring together a dancer with a visual artist, or a writer with a dancer. We are continuously seeking to add artists outside of dance to make fun collaborations.

My most favorite aspect of our work thus far is our database of resources that links dancemakers to the resources they need, whether that’s other dancers, space, technical knowledge, etc. This ties into our upcoming membership structure. It builds on us being a hub that lets people know what’s going on, where they can rent space, where they can audition, and where they can take class. We can become a one stop shop so dancers aren’t searching all over the place and can find meaningful ways to make work and practice.

As DanceATL kicks off its membership structure in January 2021, we are hoping to keep it financially accessible. Because of the pandemic, membership dues will start as ‘pay-what-you-can’ with a recommended donation of at least $25. Originally, we wanted to have separate membership tiers for organizations versus individual artists, but now is not the time. We want for it be possible for dancers to sponsor other dancers as well.

Looking toward the future, how far out does DanceATL feel able to plan? And are events all virtual, or have any in-person events been planned?

Jacquelyn: In terms of the big picture, we go year by year. This has been a big year for us, especially with the membership structure. We’re a newer organization; we’ve only been incorporated since May 2019. Everything right now is continuing to be virtual. That’s not to say things won’t change, but we’re just trying to monitor everything and keep our community safe.

Crystal: We’re dealing with a community of people whose bodies are their ways of making a living. To keep dancers safe, DanceATL is going to remain virtual. We’re also discussing having more listening sessions. We’re no longer sheltering in place in Georgia, and since a lot of us are employed by small businesses, it’s time to converse about how dancers are feeling while dancing and teaching in the middle of a pandemic. It can be both hard on the body and anxiety provoking.

On the other hand, people are getting Zoomed out. There’s a lot of information coming at people. We are in a unique space to sort through that for people and make it palatable. We recently brought on a marketing coordinator who works under the direction of Jacque to help lay out initiatives and market our programs for the purpose of our audience being able to easily digest information about upcoming workshops, auditions, and events. We have consistently released a top-of-the-week blast that includes all the dance classes and offerings that week, and then one for the weekend. It helps people stay organized. There has been more engagement, but it’s scattered because there are so many offerings. We’re happy to be a hub where people can find what’s going on.

How do you think 2020 is going to impact DanceATL in the long term?

Crystal: DanceATL originally started in the early 2010s, still with the goal of bridging gaps within the Atlanta dance community and encouraging local dancers to support each other’s work around the city. 2020 has re-sharpened our focus to those original goals and made us keenly aware of the type of programming we need. We know that we need to continue to build bridges. We know that dancers of color and particularly Black dancers are hurting. We’re going to continue to hold those types of conversations. Those conversations, along with the financial impact of the pandemic, will shape how we move forward.

Our programming comes from the people. We have a program called Quarterly Flock that started over Zoom this year which brings together all our volunteers, staff, and board of directors. We ask about long-term and immediate goals and what is needed. We don’t guess what the community needs; they tell us directly. Jacque has a close relationship with DanceATL’s committees and volunteers. We will remain responsive as much as possible when it comes to programming.

DanceATL doesn’t have any top-down structure. It’s very flat. Flocking is ironically the method by which DanceATL re-vamped its meetings in 2018. There were monthly meetings on Sunday afternoons, and at times, up to 30 dance artists would gather and write their personal priorities on post-it notes with the purpose of finding likenesses. These groupings were the foundation for the current-day committees. We’d see groups of people talking about dance writing, or resources, or classes. So as much as possible, I think that Jacque tries to remain within the flocking structure, as it has been successful in creating a sense of community.

Jacquelyn: At our first Quarterly Flock on Zoom, everyone was nervous about presenting what each committee was doing since it had been a while since the entire group had met like in the beginning. Toward the end, one of the board members played some music and we had a little dance party. Immediately, everyone felt more connected with one another and it was less of a meeting and more of a time to come together. Now we include that time at all our Quarterly Flocks.

How do you think 2020 is going to impact the dance field in the long term?

Jacquelyn: For me, it’s even more about accessibility. There are a lot more livestream happenings and use of the digital landscape. The question is: How do we use technology so it works for everyone? For our Instagram stories, we’re adding closed captioning. With Promenade on our website, we include visual descriptions for all the images. Douglas Scott, one of our board members and the artistic/executive director and founder of Full Radius Dance, taught me some Zoom etiquette such as introducing myself every time I speak. It makes offerings more accessible and broadens our audience.

Crystal: And we can also highlight Atlanta-based artists to folks outside the state of Georgia.

As dance schools transitioned to virtual classes, some teaching artists struggled to adapt. What if their laptop was broken, or their phone was out of storage, or their internet was not fast enough to support Zoom? It took time for these artists to adjust, and we have some folks who are just coming online 10 months later. So, for me, this year has also highlighted the inequality and inequity with regards to dancers often not having access to the resources required to be responsive in the face of crisis, and I’m hoping that DanceATL can be a source of information.

Any other thoughts?

Jacquelyn: I want to acknowledge the financial impact 2020 has had on the dance field. A lot of gigs were lost and studios folded. And as we transition to the digital landscape, a lot of people have been generously offering free performances and classes. But I’m hearing that many audience members or consumers have gotten into the habit of not paying for these offerings. As we one day approach a post-COVID-19 era, I hope the dance world emerges fiscally healthy and even more community-oriented, and that DanceATL can contribute to that.

Jacque Pritz, Photo by Lizzie Baker

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To learn more, visit danceatl.org.

The post Acknowledging the Impact appeared first on Stance on Dance.

BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT

Pamela Tatge is the Executive and Artistic Director of Jacob’s Pillow, an international dance festival, school, and archives located in the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts. Here, she describes how Jacob’s Pillow pivoted to a virtual festival this past summer, how the staff used the pandemic as a time of self-reflection, and ways the organization is working to better inclusion at the leadership level.

This interview is part of a series looking at how dance organizations have responded to the tumultuous events of 2020.

Pamela Tatge, Photo Hayim Heron

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What was Jacob’s Pillow’s initial response to the pandemic back in March and April?

The thing about Jacob’s Pillow is that we are an 88-year-old festival that is a tightly coiled machine. When the pandemic started, we realized our international artists were having issues with travel funding and their visas were in question, so the board and staff came together and made the very difficult decision on March 30^th to cancel the festival for the first time in its history.

Soon after that, we laid off 35 percent of our staff. Existing staff took pay cuts. In losing the festival, we lost 50 percent of our income. We took a budget that was almost 8 million and took it down to 3.7 million. It was one of those moments that’s a shock to the system.

We had a bit of time to reflect and made the decision that we were going to pivot to a virtual festival. We created an online gala that premiered on June 20^th, and then our festival began the first week in July and ran for eight weeks. We did 38 events in eight weeks, and only 20 percent was pre-existing content, so the rest all had to be produced. We essentially became producers of television. We had to learn new skills, but there was a great sense that we had to deliver on our mission and get funding to artists. We’re a summer festival, so we had to be there for artists in the summer.

How did Jacob’s Pillow shift (or did it shift) in response to the George Floyd protests this past summer?

We have been working on what we call IDEA – inclusion, diversity, equity, and access – for the past four years. When the George Floyd murder and its aftermath happened, it accelerated our work. Right away, I decided to think about gatekeeping at Jacob’s Pillow. I researched and found two associate curators who are women of color and who would work with me on the programming for the Pillow Lab in the fall and spring, as well as festival 2021. Those curators came on in August.

We made a statement of commitment on June 5^th, just like everybody else, but our commitments were actions, not just words. Each action needed a plan. We started with a great deal of self-reflection by the staff. We held bi-weekly meetings. It became the center of what we did to make plans in order to realize these actions.

IDEA had been a small staff taskforce, but we made the decision that it was the job of the entire staff. There’s now a steering committee led by me and the deputy director that is moving the work forward. Senior leadership basically took hold of this initiative in an organization-wide way. Our board met to receive the plans that the staff put together, and they have established a new subcommittee to draft how they are going to move forward on realizing our action statements.

Now that we’re several months into this pandemic and headed into a long winter, how is Jacob’s Pillow currently responding to the needs of the dance community?

We have embraced the fact that we have a remote location. We are a safe place to be in the time of COVID. We have always been a refuge for artists. So we worked with a medical director in New York City, Dr. Wendy Ziecheck, to help us create a protocol whereby we have invited four companies to be with us this fall. There will be another seven or eight in the spring. Artists have to be able to dance together without masks. We’re creating a bubble so artists can do that.

Perles Family Studio, Photo Robert Benson

We are also thinking differently about compensating artists. We were very influenced by the Creating New Futures paper, so we’re now compensating artists for their planning time to prepare for the residency.

Typically, we’d have a showing or work-in-progress at the end of a Pillow Lab, but we can’t do that now, so we’re producing something called Inside the Pillow Lab, which is an 8-12 minute film about each artist. It will create a permanent record of what artists are thinking about and doing at this time, but also, we are hopefully using the global platform that is Jacob’s Pillow to bring these artists to the attention of the world.

Looking toward the future, how far out does Jacob’s Pillow feel able to plan?

We are planning and working towards an in-person festival in summer 2021. It will lean into our presence as an outdoor festival. There will be social distancing and reduced capacity. We will anchor ourselves in the earth, as well as in the ether. We will have a multi-platform festival that will manifest both in-person and in the digital realm.

In terms of our success this past summer attracting new audiences to Jacob’s Pillow – 80 percent of the people who attended were new to us – there’s such potential to fulfill our mission around the country and world through a digital platform. That’s been a silver lining of this time for sure.

How do you think 2020 is going to impact Jacob’s Pillow in the long term?

To have been pretty much one way for 88 years and to have this pause has enabled us to think about a lot of things in systemic ways: What are the processes by which we run our school? Who is archived? How are they archived? We are asking big questions in this time that, when we come back together, will forever change us. We will be changed because we reflected. We are bringing in an outside group of external reviewers, of Black and Brown artists and cultural practitioners, to take a look at our processes and give us feedback. We can do that in this timeframe, and that will influence 2022 and beyond.

Jacob’s Pillow has always had a robust digital platform; we’re one of the few dance organizations in the world that had so much content available online 24/7. We are maximizing the potential of that platform right now by expanding it. It will have a higher profile in future years. We already had a digital presence, and my goodness, we’re so grateful we had so much content to draw upon for our festival last summer and moving forward.

I also have to mention that our school went completely online last summer. In one program, we had participants from eight different time zones. We succeeded in bringing people around the world together with incredibly provocative and inspiring faculty. The educational reach and who gets to be in a room together because of digital platforms is really exciting.

How do you think 2020 is going to impact the dance field in general in the long term?

It’s been devastating. The residencies we are providing are to a handful of companies, but there are so many companies that have not been able to be in a rehearsal room together and touch each other. It’s going to take a long time for companies to come back. We’ve already lost some dance spaces, and we may lose some companies that simply can’t financially make it through. Because of the PPP, the companies I speak with are okay for 2020, but 2021 is the big unknown.

It’s important to realize that, in terms of technology, not every artist has access to convert themselves to the digital realm. Not every artist has an interest in it.

We will have a changed landscape. We will also have a landscape that needs our work to heal and rebuild. To the extent to which we as leaders can insert ourselves into regional community discussions about recovery, we have a responsibility to be citizens of the places where we operate. That’s an important role all of us need to play.

Outside Ted Shawn Theatre, Photo David Dashiell

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To learn more, visit www.jacobspillow.org.

This interview was conducted shortly before Jacob’s Pillow’s Doris Duke Theatre burned to the ground on November 17th. If you would like to learn more, share a memory, or donate, visit www.jacobspillow.org/info-on-the-doris-duke-theatre-fire.

The post A Changed Landscape appeared first on Stance on Dance.

BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT

Christy Bolingbroke is the Executive and Artistic Director at the National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron (NCCAkron) in Akron, Ohio. NCCAkron provides dance makers and their collaborators an array of research opportunities, working spaces, and resources. Here, Christy discusses how NCCAkron has moved toward alternatives to in-person residencies. She also shares how technology is reshaping audience interaction toward more online artist-created content.

This interview is part of a series looking at how dance organizations have responded to the tumultuous events of 2020.

Micah Kraus in dialogue with Christy Bolingbroke, Photo by Dale Dong Photography

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What was NCCAkron’s initial response to the pandemic back in March and April?

We had the Stephen Petronio Company on the ground. The University of Akron suspended face-to-face instruction, but because we had a group of less than 20 people, we could still use the space. We reached out to the Petronio Company and asked if they still wanted to come, and they said yes. New York had not shut down yet. Stephen said he felt like they were the last dance company on Earth. We added more cleaning products, and there were not a lot of people around. As Ohio started closing restaurants and bars, and things started getting progressively worse in New York, Stephen decided to end the residency early.

We had two more residencies planned that spring: Nicole Klaymoon for a tech residency and Taja Will for a creative residency. We worked with both up until a week or two before they would have arrived to see where they were in this new normal. Ultimately, they both decided to postpone. We were able to secure NEA CARES Act funding, which was only available for existing programs or salaried positions. We still wanted to support those artists. They have until June 2022 to reschedule with us and use the funding, which is amazing.

Those were the immediate things to take care of. Internally, I had expanded my team three months prior to a group of contractors. I reached out to them and let them know we would work remotely if they still wanted to do the work. We pivoted into weekly meetings. It was the height of grant writing season; there were still deadlines, which felt crazy but gave us purpose.

After observing my colleagues in other institutions, I appreciated how NCCAkron didn’t have to repeatedly suffer the trauma of cancellation. When I think of larger venues that do 40-50 weeks a year of programming and rentals, they were cancelling six weeks out, and then another six weeks out. It wasn’t until June and July that wholesale postponements and cancellations happened. I watched colleagues who were living in that trauma and mourning what would have been. NCCAKron certainly had those moments, but we inherently have a higher threshold to commit to uncertainty because we’re all about process. We don’t have public facing engagements, so we didn’t also have to work to support not only the artists but also hundreds of ticket buyers.

How did NCCAkron shift (or did it shift) in response to the George Floyd protests this past summer?

This coming year is NCCAkron’s 5th anniversary. In mid-May, we had a virtual board retreat. We had been working with Jennifer Edwards and Shannon Reynolds at a consulting company called Better_ out of Philadelphia. In December 2019, we started our strategic planning process. A big part of our vision for the next five years is: How do we stay artist-centered and how are we a bridge between 20th century dance practices and 21st century dance ecology?

Then George Floyd’s murder happened. As a team, we grappled with what to do. Rather than knee jerk into a statement, we came together for another virtual meeting and reflected on what we are already doing, what we could do better, and what it means to be antiracist. It’s not a moment of defensiveness but a moment to acknowledge what we’ve done and where we could do more. We did put out a brief statement on Facebook because we didn’t want to be complicit with silence, but we really saw it as an opportunity to use our strategic plan. The strategic plan is now finalized, and we’ve continued to actively seek out allyship and antiracist opportunities and training to practice this work. Now we’re starting to also realize we don’t operate in a vacuum. Being a nonprofit organization on a college campus, how can we lead with our colleagues in the field? Dance has something specific to say about being antiracist because it’s all about the politics of the body.

What are some ways NCCAkron is currently responding to the needs of the dance community?

COVID has erased some of the constrictions around dedicated time and space. We’re not limited anymore to bringing artists to town and seeing how much they can do in 10 days, with a day and a half of travel each way. Or even the invitation to think about space differently: If you’re not in a studio, are you doing site specific work? What about mental space versus physical space?

There are a couple programs we were doing anyway, but their relevance became greater. In February 2020, we were named series editor with the University of Akron Press. Our first book has been approved and will be published in July 2021. It’s by Hope Mohr about shifting cultural power and a reflection on the 10-year anniversary of the Bridge Project. It personally gave me a lot of solace in making meaning out of the senseless events in the world and especially George Floyd’s murder. We’re also commissioning essays. We reached out to artists who then named writers to write an essay on their work. We collected those essays and will be submitting that manuscript for approval this winter.

We had a couple of artists who were supposed to come this past summer, fall, or this coming spring. I proposed three different budgets to my board for approval. One had some travel possible throughout the year, determined by which state the artist was coming from and the time of year. The second had no travel at all in the fall, but maybe in the spring. The third had no travel at all, which doesn’t mean we’re not supporting artists. Travel expenses might go down in different scenarios, but our artist fees do not. For example, we were supposed to have a Dancing Lab with Sean Dorsey Dance in August 2020. Sean elected to use part of the budgeted funds as a satellite residency this year.

Everybody is talking about doing things virtual or remotely, but we really like the idea of satellite because it geo-locates in relation to Akron, Ohio. We liked the idea that we could support artists wherever they are, and also add to the work we do. Sean’s team really got into that and there was a sense of increased mindfulness and nourishment – there in San Francisco and for us here in Akron.

We also did a residency with Charles O. Anderson, who was translating a piece of his, (Re)current Unrest, into an edited livestream. The piece was originally supposed to have local performers, so how could he do that in the virtual space? We supported him with a satellite residency to experiment with virtual dance workshops.

Charles O. Anderson’s (Re)current Unrest, Photo by Jon Haas

We also explored that idea of transcending time, place, and space by experimenting with something called Residency-in-a-Box. We couldn’t bring people to Akron; how could we send a little bit of Akron to people to use creatively in whatever space they are in? Before the pandemic, we had worked with a local screen print artist, Micah Kraus, to riff off our logo for an art piece in 28 parts in our office. It’s called Migration Patterns. That work was then translated into a handmade journal, stickers, and a bandana. The kit also included a coffee tumbler and local beans from Akron Coffee Roasters. We had never sold anything before, but this was a way we could get some of NCCAkron out in the world. It also responded to the social justice movement, as all proceeds went to one of five organizations doing equity work in dance: Native Arts & Culture Foundation, The International Association of Blacks in Dance, Exchange House Akron, Creating New Futures Coalition, and Alternate Roots.

How do you think 2020 is going to impact NCCAkron in the long term?

We’re in a very fortunate position. What’s happened this year has, if anything, heightened what we do. By that I mean we were interested before COVID in dance writing and how people can tell their stories, and now more people are telling their own stories by developing podcasts or livestreaming weekly series. There’s this 20-year-old idea that the internet is possibly an equal playing field. Artists no longer have to wait for a news outlet to tell their story. That’s something we were already interested in developing.

How do you think 2020 is going to impact the dance field in the long term?

It comes back to transcending time, place, and space. What used to be the norm has been upended. One of the things I hold for myself and colleagues is to not revert when things get back to normal. Let’s reach for better. How do we want to move forward? What do we want to let go of? What new things do we want to discover?

I’m excited about more dance films getting made to varying degrees of success. Those newer to dance film may have 20-30 years under their belt as a choreographer but are making film for the first time. It’s like they are a fish out of water. For those who have been focused on getting into venues, now another option is to be a kick-ass dance filmmaker.

The other thing that’s coming up is blurring product versus community engagement. It used to be there’d be a performance and then a talk back afterward or a masterclass the next day. Some artists before COVID were starting to say it’s just as important to engage with community members as it is to perform a finished work. I think about Emily Johnson as an artist interested early on in centering activities that were previously ancillary. Now more artists and presenters are talking about creating meaningful interactions. I’m hopeful we won’t lose some of these new tools.

Even before COVID, social media was changing how dance was perceived. Institutions need to support dancers by finding new ways of working. For a professional dance company or venue, the typical engagement would be a show that is marketed to single ticket buyers, which eventually became season ticket buyers, donors, or board members. But now, the first point of interaction is no longer coming to a show. That first point of interaction is now online. Organizations need to rethink that pipeline of engagement. If the first point of engagement is livestreamed videos, what are institutions doing to get to know those people so it’s no longer a passive interaction? How can that lead to monetization?

I believe it’s incumbent on dance institutions that serve artists, not dance artists themselves, to help monetize content. Lots of dance artists and organizations experimented with free content this spring. Then it became a donation basis. And now people are starting to set up subscriptions. This is something I’m keen to check in on a year from now. No one knows what to expect in terms of financial goals.

I’m excited for those who have found ways to make it work. For example, there’s something called Dance Church out of Seattle. A program by Kate Wallich/The YC, it’s advertised as the dance party you wish you’d been at the night before. They were doing it before COVID with a leader on a mic and a live DJ. Within a week of the shutdowns it was online. It is donation based with an estimated $10 per person. I’ve heard most people do donate, and every time I’ve logged on, thousands are participating. That model wouldn’t work for everyone, but Dance Church is an example that does translate to an online space.

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To learn more, visit www.nccakron.org.

NCCAkron’s Residency-in-a-Box, Photo by Christi Welter

The post Transcending Time, Place, and Space appeared first on Stance on Dance.

BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT

Debra Cash is the Executive Director of Boston Dance Alliance, a dance service organization that builds capacity for dance by identifying and creating shared resources, information, and partnerships across the Boston metropolitan area and New England region. Here, Debra shares the myriad ways Boston Dance Alliance has responded to the needs of the dance community throughout 2020, the organization’s plans to address accessibility for dancers with disabilities, and how the plethora of virtual events this past year are both a boon and a mixed bag.

This interview is part of a series looking at how dance organizations have responded to the tumultuous events of 2020.

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What was Boston Dance Alliance’s initial response to the pandemic back in March and April?

Boston Dance Alliance (BDA) was about to have our annual in-person gala days before Massachusetts shut down. We ended up losing our deposit for the banquet and the performers couldn’t come. For a while, we just paused. At that point, the idea that we wouldn’t be able to do anything in late summer had not sunk in. We eventually moved the gala to a virtual event many months later so the people we had intended to honor would still have the celebration they deserved.

One of the first things I did was repurpose what had been a weekly newsletter that went out to about 3,000 people. Prior, it had been information about upcoming workshops and performances from website postings. We completely repurposed it to go out every couple of days with information about COVID requirements, relief programs, encouragement, and crisis management. BDA’s strength is that we’re very small, but we have a big network. I was able to connect people with resources – not necessarily to give them the information they needed, but at least how to get information. At the same time, I became part of a cohort of cultural leaders in the Boston area who were on weekly calls with the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture. It became a place where we could talk directly to the city agency and public health experts and then share that information with our constituency.

Soon after, I got an email and a small check from someone asking if there was going to be a relief fund for dancers. A larger foundation came forward with seed money. That was matched by one other organization and we started with about $5,000. We decided the relief fund would be open to dancers, choreographers, and dance teachers within a certain catchment of the Boston metropolitan area. The only thing BDA required in the application was that people say they had lost at least $250 due to cancellations. It was a low bar, as some people lost a lot of money, but once people said they lost income, they got on my spreadsheet. Each emergency grant would be $250.

We knew that primarily white contemporary dance artists are on BDA’s social media network. The hip hop community, for example, is not as integrated into our networks. Because the grants would be given first come first serve, in order to distribute the money in an equitable way, we got in touch with two Black women involved with programming festivals primarily for Black artists, and asked them to activate their networks so more people would be connected to this opportunity. I was extraordinarily gratified that we ended up with a proportionate distribution of funds across different demographics.

When we opened the call for applications, I was nervous and skeptical. The universe of need was enormous, and we had $5,000 in hand. The first 24 hours, we had 35 or 40 applications. The community stepped up and, by the end of the program, we had raised $15,000 and made donations to 62 dance artists. The relief fund opened April 1st and closed in June. Many other organizations across the country were similarly managing local relief funds. One of the things that has come out of the pandemic is enormous cross-disciplinary and national cooperation from those of us who are in service and coordinating functions.

How did Boston Dance Alliance shift (or did it shift) in response to the George Floyd protests this past summer?

Like everyone else, we sent an eblast saying that our hearts were broken and we have a commitment to doing justice work. One thing we did that was different than most other organizations was that our statement defined what we had already put in place to support dancers of color in our community.

An example of support BDA already has in place is a program I started many years ago that distributes brand-new dancewear to low income dancers, who are primarily dancers of color. It’s a wonderful arrangement with the strip mall dancewear folks when they have leftover inventory. If they have pointe shoes in sizes 4, 7, and 9, for example, but have sold the other sizes, they may take the random sizes off the shelf and put them in a back room. What small dancewear stores have done over many years is give their excess brand-new inventory to BDA once or twice a year and we distribute it through our member organizations. We have distributed close to $150,000 worth of new dancewear. We consider it part of our justice initiative. Nobody shouldn’t be able to participate in this artform because they can’t afford the equipment. You can’t take a tap class if you don’t have tap shoes. We’re not in a position to give scholarships, but we can help make it possible for low income dancers to participate.

It was a deliberate decision to say we’re already doing the work. We know there’s a long way to go and we’re happy to learn of more needs we can address. We’re happy to be in collaboration and solidarity with other organizations. But we have already been listening and hearing what is needed.

What are some ways Boston Dance Alliance is currently responding to the needs of the dance community?

BDA’s biggest initiative to date is that we have for the past four years hosted a dancer health day where dancers from across the region have come for a wellness screening with some of the Boston area’s most experienced dance medicine clinicians. These include orthopedists, physical therapists, and others trained in different sports medicine modalities. They test range of motion, lung capacity, stamina, and more, and then dancers receive one-on-one referrals by the clinicians. They wouldn’t necessarily prescribe, but they would give dancers information about what to do next. It’s part of a larger Dance/USA initiative that was started for ballet company dancers, but BDA was able to roll it out to freelancers.

This year, we of course couldn’t do it. We had always combined that event with an Open Call Audition where approximately 80 dancers would take up to four master classes while local choreographers observed them. We had to think out of the box, and, with the help of the clinicians, we were able to schedule 10 different online dancer health sessions on everything from nutrition and stress to how to take care of hamstrings and core strength. Especially given that people have been dancing at home, the focus was how to take care of the dancer’s instrument during this time. Much of that advice will be useful forever.

We were fortunate to be featured in an article in Pointe Magazine, and as a result we had people login for the sessions from as far away as Australia, South Africa, Los Angeles, and Wisconsin, as well as reaching the local Massachusetts dancers. That told me there was great hunger for this information, and that BDA was offering something not generally available. It was a way for people to get their questions answered. Many people came to many sessions, though some just came to one. People registered for $15 and could go to one session or all 10. People now can still register for that same $15 and get access to the video archive. It will be available for probably a year. Things like that have been blessings in disguise; we weren’t previously thinking of ourselves as broadcast entities.

Instagram image for the launch of BDA’s Dancer Health Month

The other thing we launched after Thanksgiving is a project funded by The Boston Foundation to support dance and disability. Five years ago, BDA did a one-day conference called Wheels Up! It was a chance for dancers with disabilities to talk about what was needed in the community. At the same time, I was part of the team that put together the National Convening on the Future of Physically Integrated Dance in 2016. So I was very up to date on disability and dance. After BDA’s regional event that followed that convening, we took away that we could create a bespoke matchmaking service for people with disabilities and people who wanted to work with them, schools that were accessible, and programs that had resources.

Here’s an example: I got a call from a person who uses a wheelchair and who was getting married to someone who is able-bodied, and they wanted to dance together at their wedding. I was able to put them in touch with a ballroom dance teacher who works with seniors and is comfortable with people who use wheelchairs. Moms will call us and say, “I’ve got a kid who loves to dance and who is Deaf,” and I will call the studios in the area and see who is interested in making their class available to the student.

We had been doing that, so the idea when I went to the Boston Foundation this past year was to do a one- or two-day conference about where things are now with dancers and disability. Then COVID hit. I rewrote the entire proposal to be a series of virtual conversations that are artist-led among dancers with disabilities over the course of a year. Essentially the project is to build a network among the dancers and learn from them about what the ecosystem in New England needs to make us more accessible and equitable.

BDA has subcontracted with Inclusive Arts Vermont to facilitate the virtual events and ensure our technology is accessible. There are dancers of all disabilities participating – both visible and invisible. The idea is they will meet each other and talk, as they don’t all know each other and work across genres. We are hoping that as ideas emerge, those needs can be met, or at least the organizations most likely to be able to fulfill them can engage.

For instance, we know that one of the priorities for concert dancers is accessible greenrooms in theaters. But it’s a heavy lift to make that happen. We can certainly explain to theaters and cultural facilities about what is needed so they can distribute information to anyone renovating a theater, but there are lots of smaller actions that are less expensive and quicker to put into place. We may find that there’s a good understanding of audio description for dance in Massachusetts but not necessarily in Maine. That’s something that can easily be replicated. People who have those assets or resources may be able to share or teach what is needed. Different problems will be dealt with by different combinations of people and resources. Some things may need new funding, while others just need awareness. We’re very excited about this initiative.

Looking toward the future, how far out does Boston Dance Alliance feel able to plan? And are events all virtual, or have any in-person events been planned?

We always had two main in-person activities: the open call audition/ dancer health day and the gala. Our gala was more of a community celebration. We have decided our next gala will be virtual and a little earlier in the year. Even if a vaccine is available, it won’t be available to everyone. Many of the people who come to the gala in our community are older, and the person who is nominated as Dr. Michael Shannon Dance Champion must be at least 60 years old to be in the running.

Our organization’s value is primarily sharing information and resources. The one thing we do have that is physical and tangible is our portable dance floor. It’s a very expensive asset – $50,000 – and it costs us more than $500 a month to store and insure. It was developed by Wooden Kiwi, a Boston-based manufacturer of dance floors. When the floor was originally designed, BDA wanted dancers to be able to set it up themselves and perform anywhere: a cafeteria with linoleum, an asphalt parking lot, carpet, or grass. It works with percussive shoes and barre feet as well, and sets up in about half an hour.

Historically, we would have a lot of rentals of the floor with sizes ranging from about 5 x 10 ft. for someone doing clogging or flamenco, to the full floor, which is 37.5 x 35 ft. People will rent the size they need for the amount of time they need, and pricing is according to size and membership. Most of our rentals are from March through September, and then another bump with Christmas programming. That went away with the pandemic, but we were gratified that in the summer we had four floor rentals. That’s way fewer than we usually have, but it meant there were four different events where people were able to dance outside with social distancing protocols.

We hope that for next spring and summer, dancing outside is going to be possible. Given what the science says, people will be more comfortable going outdoors in masks and watching a performance. Our floor makes that possible. New England is cold, so there’s no use of the floor until April or May, unless someone rents the floor to make a video.

How do you think 2020 is going to impact Boston Dance Alliance in the long term?

Our biggest problem is going to be funding. Like everyone else, we are facing an existential crisis. Membership brings in a little money, but the dancers themselves are out of work. Additionally, because the need in every sector of the economy is so great, people who might have given to BDA may feel there are other organizations that need more. When you have food insecurity – one out of five people in Boston are food insecure – there’s going to be a real pressure on individual donations even though there are some people who continue to have jobs and wealth.

We are an organization that is responsive, so as the conditions change for dancers and dance studios, we’re here to help. Early in the pandemic, I got a call from a man who runs a ballroom dance studio in Cape Cod. He said, “We’re in trouble. We can’t teach partner dancing right now, and that’s all we do.” We pulled together a Zoom with his community of studios, which it turns out hadn’t met before and didn’t understand themselves to be a cohort. I told them about small business loans and gave them suggestions and clarifications about the terms of the CARES Act and different programs. I also wrote the City of Boston plans for reopening dance studios, so I was able to share that with them, which incorporated both the Dance/USA guidelines as well as guidelines from Europe and the theater scene. I didn’t tell them how to fix their HVAC but told them air circulation mattered. I could not have anticipated that BDA needed to talk to commercial social dance studios, but as things develop, we find out where the need is.

Virtuality is a mixed bag. Lectures and classes are valuable during this time, but people gathering is the heart and soul of what we do. Virtual events do make things more accessible for dancers with disabilities and dancers who are distantly located. My hope is that we retain a certain hybridity where people can tune in online. But certainly, as an audience member, seeing a dance performance online is not remotely the same experience as being in the theater with others. I’m delighted that people have moved forward with dance on camera, but we really shouldn’t be saying that’s all we’re going to do, just as live theater wasn’t completely eclipsed by movies. I’m eager to get back to being together with strangers and experiencing something visceral.

How do you think 2020 is going to impact the dance field in the long term?

One thing I’ll say as myself, not BDA, is we must have universal healthcare in this country and must detach employment status from healthcare. 2020 has shown us how vulnerable we are. One illness is enough to drive a person, a family, a business, or a discipline into complete poverty and existential crisis. That’s not acceptable. As much as I’m eager to be part of the conversation about how to make dance careers sustainable – even the lucky ones are lurching from grant to grant, and we have issues of equity and what gets presented to whom – if our society doesn’t have a basic social safety net, especially around health and food security, we cannot do anything. I am hoping the pandemic gave enough people in positions to do something about it an awareness of what is at stake. It’s one thing for BDA to talk to dancers about how to deal with their feet. It’s another to talk about how to keep from dying, how to access quality healthcare with the resourcefulness and ability to pay. That’s the place where my commitments to the field and my commitments to artists as humans who live in community come together.

Debra Cash, Photo by Craig Bailey at Perspective Photo

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To learn more, visit www.bostondancealliance.org.

The post Responsive to Artists as Humans appeared first on Stance on Dance.

Raélle Dorfan is the Executive Director of Dance Resource Center, a nonprofit member-supported service organization that provides the Los Angeles area dance community access to information, resources, and services. Here, she discusses how Dance Resource Center has worked to distribute monetary aid to its constituency, how it seeks to support equity and inclusion in its programming, and how resilience is not new to the LA dance community as they continue to evolve and respond to the times.

This interview is part of a series looking at how dance organizations have responded to the tumultuous events of 2020.

DRC’s Day of Dancer Health in 2019, Photo by George Simian

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What was Dance Resource Center’s initial response to the pandemic back in March and April?

Dance Resource Center (DRC) pivoted within two weeks of the stay-at-home order to launch an emergency fund to distribute monetary aid to the dance community as quickly, equitably, and effectively as possible. The fund was made possible due to the generous support of individual donors and the City of LA Department of Cultural Affairs. Applications were unrestricted and open to all Los Angeles (LA) county dance professionals. DRC received more than 200 applications and issued funding twice to all dance professionals who reside in LA county. This included dancers, teachers, choreographers, and companies.

How did DRC shift (or did it shift) in response to the George Floyd protests this past summer?

In 2017, DRC presented an equity and inclusion policy that was unanimously adopted by the board and has since been a foundation for the work that DRC conducts. Diversity and equity in the dance community is what contributes to the groundbreaking work that shapes and evolves LA culture. In the past year, DRC has facilitated several low-cost or free convenings that were held in underserved communities and districts in order to increase equitable access to dance resources. The work that DRC conducts builds the capacity of dance leaders throughout LA so that dance can be sustained throughout the city. At the heart of DRC’s mission is the understanding that access to the arts is integral to the vitality of humanity.

DRC continues to acknowledge the acute need to remove barriers to the recruitment, retention, and advancement of dance groups, dancers, choreographers, and administrative/management staff from historically excluded populations who are currently underrepresented in the dance field. DRC is a signatory to Dance/USA’s Statement in Support of a Healthy, Safe, and Equitable Culture. DRC demonstrates its commitment to the core values of equity and inclusion by recruiting and retaining leadership who reflect the diversity of the communities which DRC serves, by providing educational and professional development programs as well as policy positions that are relevant and culturally competent, by acting as a leading voice in the dance and greater arts community for the recognition of the challenges to diversity, equity, and inclusion, by providing a platform for the honest and open exploration of paths towards a truly inclusive dance community in the metropolitan area, and by supporting Dance/USA’s development of national standards in conjunction with Dance/USA’s overall mission that promotes and encourages the dance community to be knowledgeable and sensitive to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Additionally, DRC’s partnerships and collaborations with BIPOC community leaders, members, and organizations are essential in thoughtfully and effectively responding to the needs of underserved populations.

What are some ways DRC is currently responding to the needs of the dance community?

DRC was founded in 1987 by a collective of LA-based choreographers who had a shared dream of contributing resources and programming that would strengthen the already brilliant dance communities of LA. Originally a volunteer-run organization, DRC focused on generating shared resources for dancers through marketing and programming efforts. DRC also provided fiscal sponsorship for dance artists regardless of budget size, which allowed for smaller organizations and artists to grow. DRC was built from a rich history of arts and culture in LA. To honor that history, DRC established the Lester Horton awards in recognition of Lester Horton, an influential dancer in LA and beyond. The awards are given to chosen choreographers, dancers, advocates, educators, presenters, and other dance stakeholders who have advanced the field of dance and fuel the well-being, vibrancy, and inclusive growth of the greater LA arts community. From its roots, DRC has continued to work to build community and celebrate the field of LA dance creatives.

DRC continues to expand its programming, services, resources, and reach in order to best represent and contribute to LA’s flourishing dance community. DRC currently serves a varied constituency consisting of small to mid-sized dance companies, choreographers, independent artists, presenting venues, administrators, and educators. DRC is proud to be the only discipline specific dance service organization in Southern California that offers creative options to meet the significant infrastructural needs of its constituents. Our priority the past few months is ensuring the community has access to resources available to and for them, as well as ensuring our programming captures relevant topics. For example, last year focused on the AB5 ruling as well as finding affordable/free rehearsal space for the community, while this upcoming year health and wellness related programming/resources and leadership training are our priority.

DRC’s Day of Dancer Health in 2019, Photo by George Simian

We are looking forward to announcing new services and resources that will be available to and for the greater LA community in early 2021. In large part due to the pandemic, we have been able to produce new avenues to continue supporting the creative community during the pandemic and beyond.  Stay tuned for announcements coming with the launch of DRC’s new website!

Looking toward the future, how far out does DRC feel able to plan? And are events all virtual, or have any in-person events been planned?

DRC is planning all virtual programming for the first half of 2021 and is ready to continue virtual programming to abide by any restrictions in place via the county and state. DRC will not hold in-person events until it is safe to do so. Planning ahead for small to mid-size organizations has been an ever-present hurdle in the LA dance community due to limited resources and funding opportunities. The pandemic has amplified the need for ongoing support even further to aid in successful planning and, as has been recently experienced, when immediate changes need to occur.

For the first half of the new year, DRC will be hosting virtual convenings and workshops prioritizing health and wellness during the pandemic and as we navigate back to the new normal, as well as leadership training for both teachers and arts administrators. Our new website will offer a suite of new services to support the dance community.

How do you think 2020 is going to impact DRC in the long term?

Like many of our constituents, DRC is dependent on contributions from government and private entities as well as revenue streams generated by live performances. Since most live performance will not resume until well into 2021, the financial impact will be significant on DRC and the community we support. That said, DRC has taken this time to assess and find innovative ways to continue to support the diverse, colorful, and vibrant LA dance community. DRC is currently building a website with new features for our community, which we look forward to sharing in 2021.

How do you think 2020 is going to impact the dance field in the long term?

Creativity and resilience are not new to the LA dance community. Whether it be juggling multiple jobs or budgeting to accommodate low-funding opportunities, the LA dance community has continually prioritized art being accessible, and this pandemic is no exception. Leaping into virtual programming and outdoor classes/performances, LA dance artists are continually evolving and expanding. The pandemic reflects dance artists’ ingenuity in advancing the field and inspiring others. However, without (continued) financial support, if they haven’t already been forced to, businesses will close or move. It is imperative the community continues to support one another as a priority, and those in seats to do so – tackle challenging but necessary conversations with stakeholders.

Raélle Dorfan, Photo by Luis “Panch” Perez

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To learn more, visit www.danceresourcecenter.org.

The post Creativity and Resilience appeared first on Stance on Dance.

BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT

Amy Fitterer is the Executive Director of Dance/USA, the national service organization for professional dance, which serves a broad cross-section of the dance field. Here, she shares how the country’s largest dance service organization has been responding to the needs of both individual dance artists and dance organizations during the pandemic, how Dance/USA has integrated equity into a core part of its mission, and how she sees virtual platforms as an opportunity to increase reach and accessibility.

This interview is part of a series looking at how dance organizations have responded to the tumultuous events of 2020.

Amy Fitterer, Executive Director of Dance/USA, Photo by Alison Bank Photography

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What was Dance/USA’s initial response to the pandemic back in March and April?

Dance/USA immediately convened all 18 of our member networks, which include artistic directors, executive directors, service organizations, presenters, agents, and affinity groups. We came together starting on a weekly basis. Those calls have continued, though some have evolved and are now every other week or once a month. Attendance is very strong and the feedback from the membership is that these calls have been a lifeline. They are opportunities for people to share how they are problem solving in the moment, understanding the latest health guidelines, and supporting each other as they make very difficult decisions. It’s been joint community problem solving and idea generation. There’s a sense of a very strong network.

We employ a government affairs director who is a registered lobbyist for the dance field. It’s a shared position with OPERA America. It’s actually the position I held when I first got hired by Dance/USA over a decade ago. Advocacy at the federal level is core to what Dance/USA does. We jumped into lobbying for COVID relief support. If you remember, a series of bills were passed. We did a lot of advocacy and action alerts around the third one, which was the CARES Act, and it resulted in more than 10,000 letters to Congress. We put the call out over social media and on our website, so we had many people participate beyond our membership.

We included in all our lobbying packages pandemic unemployment, which continues to be very important, knowing that one of the hardest hit constituencies in this pandemic are individuals piecing their income together. This is the majority of the dance field. Tacking on that additional $600 for individuals in the CARES Act was incredibly important and something we continue to push for.

An image from Dance/USA’s social media promoting COVID-related advocacy

How did Dance/USA shift (or did it shift) in response to the George Floyd protests this past summer?

Working in advocacy and social justice has been core to Dance/USA for almost a decade. We have been trying to tackle our own internal inequities and our history of inequity. We are working not just to transform ourselves but also to work with our members in the broader field on the importance of becoming a much more equitable and anti-racist industry.

When the George Floyd murder took place, Dance/USA felt like everybody else: We were heartbroken and angry, but we also felt that we were not beginning at step one in awakening to the inequities in our industry. In all honesty, what was encouraging was that the uprising awakened many more people working in the industry to our field’s inequities than were sensitive to them before. We felt that, rather than getting pushback from some of our constituents for our work around undoing racism in dance, more and more people were willing to come to the table.

As everybody did for better or for worse, we released a statement on Black Lives Matter. A statement is incredibly important, but everybody knows a statement is just a statement. In our statement, we affirmed our mission and values, which were rewritten three years ago by the board to center equity and justice as core to the work we do. We still have so much work to do ourselves and are continuing on this journey. One of the things that came about from the George Floyd protests was more dialogue around white supremacy culture. We are diving deeper into what white dominant culture is and how it is playing out in our art forms.

Dance/USA had booked the organization Service Never Sleeps for our in-person June conference. With our in-person conference not able to happen, we pivoted Service Never Sleeps to virtual. There is a thirst for what Service Never Sleeps does, so we expanded it beyond a conference session. The staff and board went through a four-module training, and we’ve been offering external trainings to anybody in the industry who would like to join for a very low fee.

The Service Never Sleeps training is brilliant. Module one is allyship. This empowers everybody to understand that no matter who you are, we all have privilege in some areas, and in that moment it’s our responsibility to be an ally to those who do not have privilege in that area. I think that is powerful because it provides a platform of strength that everybody can stand on. Module two is understanding and unpacking white supremacy culture. Module three is microaggressions and internal bias. And module four is building equity.

As we pivoted our June conference to virtual, we centered the BIPOC voice. We also brought in a psychologist who is an expert on the effects of racism on mental health. While we spoke about COVID and the safety and health issues there, we also spoke about racism and its effects on mental health. We had a couple of dedicated sessions for artists who work in social justice, moderated and in conversation with Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, founding artistic director/chief visioning partner of Urban Bush Women. The conversation was geared to leaders and social justice warriors who have been doing this work for decades.

We also coordinated with The International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD). “Open Space: An Artist Connectivity Series, Special Edition,” presented by IABD, Sheffield Global Arts Management (SGA Management), KMP Artists, and Dance/USA took place during our conference. We opened with a session by Urban Bush Women and we closed with Cleo Parker Robinson’s “Celebration of Life.” Cleo talked about living through the 60s and the civil unrest then. She talked about her life’s journey and how proud she was this summer to see the next generation on the streets. Watching it from my home on my laptop, I was very moved.

In the conference itself, we talked about dance and performance seasons, but everything was grounded in a strong reality of what we were living through. Not that I want to program a conference in eight weeks under crisis again, but it gave the Dance/USA team a chance to be responsive.

A screenshot from the Dance/USA Institute for Leadership Training 2020 virtual seminar

What are some ways Dance/USA is currently responding to the needs of the dance community?

As our weekly and bi-weekly member network calls have continued we decided to survey our member groups in August. In order to stay responsive, we made some minor adjustments to ensure we were providing the best networking experience. There is power in a national association to create space for connection, peer learning, and information sharing.

Our virtual conference had almost 1300 registrants because it was more accessible and equitable. We offered pay-what-you-can registration and the entry rate was $10. We’ve done some extensive processing about what we learned from a virtual conference. The virtual model is something we’re going to hold on to next year. And in the future when we can go back to in-person, we’ll be looking at a hybrid model.

We also blew open our membership structure. COVID is giving Dance/USA a huge opportunity to move further along on what we call our equity continuum. Structural change is one of the next big areas. From July through December, we completely abated membership dues. If you were already a member, you didn’t have to do anything but keep showing up and responding to action alerts. Members might be laid off or furloughed, or they might have just had to lay off many people. They might be looking at ending their company or be under pressure by their university to close their presenting house. The pressures are extreme and hard, but we just want people to stay in the conversation to navigate toward solutions.

We also opened membership to new members at just $25 for both individuals and organizations. That has been well received. So far, we have more than 70 new members, the majority of which are organizations, but we do have many new individuals as well.

Looking toward the future, how far out does Dance/USA feel able to plan? And are events all virtual, or have any in-person events been planned?

As we look to the future, we will continue our core services of engagement, advocacy, research, and preservation. As we’re still in the middle of this pandemic, we will continue aggressively with our federal advocacy. Tony Shivers is our phenomenal government affairs director. He recently released an election analysis. During the crisis, he had our members speaking with Congressional leaders in both the House and Senate.

Dance/USA’s get-out-the-vote campaign #Dance2Vote

We also participated with the broader nonprofit sector on policy position statements as well as broader arts sector statements. At the coalition tables, there’s a lot of conversation around how we’re advocating for the individual artist. That was on the table pre-COVID, but it has grown. “Individual artist” is a complicated term; they might be employed parttime. The majority of the independent artists in our industry piecemeal their income together, and they were disastrously hit. In that regard, our advocacy will continue.

We will be asking for membership dues again in 2021 because we need revenue, but we will keep them as discounted as possible. We are also going to keep new-membership dues at a very low rate. We can’t serve people unless they are connected and participating.

It is going to be a hard year financially for Dance/USA because we don’t expect membership dues to come in at the levels they have in the past. Our other funders and sponsors have stayed and are being supportive. Dance/USA is financially stable. But the reality is that the longer this crisis drags on, the harder it will be for everybody.

We have been very frustrated that Congress cannot come to an agreement for a new COVID relief package. As the legislation is frozen, people are losing jobs, unable to pay rent or groceries, and organizations that employ people are going into the red and looking at new rounds of furloughs and layoffs. We absolutely need our federal government to take action.

How do you think 2020 is going to impact Dance/USA or the larger dance field in the long term?

I am optimistic that when we get to where it’s safe to dance together again without masks, there is going to be a heyday for live performance experiences. What we carry forward is the learnings and experimentation of virtual, so there’s a hybrid future for all of us where there is joyous time dancing together. It’s going to be so wonderful to be together again breathing and exhaling the same air and not worrying about getting each other sick, as well as being able to shake hands, hug, and sit shoulder to shoulder.

I think we’ve also been given a huge opportunity to invest and experiment in technology, because it’s either that or go away right now. We’re learning so much about what works in the virtual realm and how we can engage people from all over the world. Companies are having people log into their virtual seasons from different countries. There has been a huge opportunity to experiment with how to create dance for film and in unique venues. We’re learning about distribution networks, and I wonder if the rightsholders and unions will adapt to be more responsive to virtual platforms in the future.

We’re continuing to ride the waves – it’s still a difficult time – but I think the storm will end. Humans dance; I’m not worried about that. I just hope we take advantage of this terrible crisis. In a way, there’s no better time to experiment with new ways of doing things than right now, so let’s carry what works forward.

Any other thoughts?

In January 2020, I announced that I’m stepping down as executive director at the end of this year, after being in the role for 10 years. I have a small child and am excited to prioritize my family for a while. On December 1, Dance/USA announced Kellee Edusei will step into the role of Executive Director. Kellee has been with Dance/USA for 12 years and will bring great passion, insight, and energy to leading the organization. It’s been an honor to lead and serve the dance field simultaneously. This position has taken constant adaptation and humility, and I am taking with me many great memories and connections.

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To learn more, visit www.danceusa.org.

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Welcome to the end of 2020. Take a bow. You have made it through an incredibly difficult year. Our sense of normal has been thrown out the window, and with it, what little security existed in the dance field. The performing arts in general have been especially hard hit. For dance artists, it’s become almost impossible to do what we do.

The view from the window (the one normal was thrown out of) looks both bleak and hopeful from where I sit. As I write this, coronavirus case numbers are skyrocketing as we head into what looks like a difficult and isolating winter. But there are a handful of vaccines developed that will eventually be distributed and Trump is headed out of office. I am worried about what’s to come in the next few months with hospitals full and a fraught transition of presidential power, but I am optimistic that in the long run the events of 2020 will bring about needed change.

I wanted to know what the dance field will look like post new normal, so I reached out to the leaders of major dance organizations across the country to find out how they have navigated this past year and what they foresee will be the impact of 2020. I interviewed the directors of Dance/USA, Dancers’ Group in the Bay Area, Dance Resource Center in Los Angeles, Boston Dance Alliance, and DanceATL in Atlanta, as well as of Jacob’s Pillow (a major dance festival in Becket, Massachusetts) and NCCAkron (a choreographic center in Akron, Ohio). This is clearly not a list of all the major dance organizations; it’s just a sampling of who I managed to get in touch with as 2020 draws to a close.

Their responses, as you’ll see in the coming weeks as I publish their interviews, underlie just how cataclysmic 2020 has been to the dance field. From the lockdowns and social distancing measures meant to stymie viral spread, to the protests and heightened awareness of racial injustice following the murder of George Floyd, to the daily task of adapting to video technology in the quest to continue making classes and performances available, it quickly becomes apparent there is no going back to the way things were in 2019.

Some of the changes wrought make me excited. The most obvious and long overdue is addressing racism and white supremacy embedded within our institutions. I took heart that none of the leaders I spoke with had only started addressing marginalization within their respective institutions this year; most had begun the process years prior of taking a deep look at how their organizations were serving and representing people of color. The events of this year have sped up that effort. This is not to say there aren’t dance organizations in desperate need of introspection, but the ones I spoke with have been actively moving toward thorough reevaluation of their institutions.

Another change I’m looking forward to is the awareness that the health of dance artists, both mental and physical, is not disposable. As more of the public has dealt with anxiety and depression, there’s been a call within our field to assess what has long been giving dance artists anxiety and depression: feeling overworked and undervalued. More than one dance organization I spoke with described regular affinity group meetings to provide support, and many had substantially lowered their membership dues. Others had raised and distributed COVID relief grants for artists. I hope such support measures become more common.

Finally, online access to classes and performances has been a way to engage students and audiences beyond studios and theaters. While we can agree it’s no permanent substitute to being in-person, all the dance organizations I spoke with described reaching new folks interested in their programming, often geographically far from where their dance organization is located. While consistent internet access is unfortunately not a privilege all have, and Zoom has become odious for many, it is a boon for people with disabilities, people living outside major metropolitan areas, or people just unable to get across town through traffic. All the leaders I spoke with describe a hybrid model going forward of online and in-person content.

I hope you enjoy reading my interviews with these dance leaders over the coming weeks and take heart that while this year has caused massive devastation, the vibrancy of the dance field is not diminished in any way, and has even started to rectify some glaring inadequacies. When 2020 came and our sense of normal was thrown out the window, perhaps we got some much needed fresh air.

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